The import season for New Zealand onions is getting off to a slow start in Europe until today. "The Dutch and, among others, the German onions have been in the way for a long time. Some customers are switching to premium quality onions from New Zealand and South Africa, but it remains a price issue and customers can still buy plenty of old European onions at low prices," says Andrea Candiano of Van der Lans International.
Up to week 18, New Zealand has shipped 45,000 tonnes of onions to Europe, up from 51,000 tonnes in that week in 2023. "The season of red onions from New Zealand has already ended. We now get those from Egypt and there is a very good demand for them. The yellow onions do still come from New Zealand. We continue to sell those, depending on the season, until the second half of July," Andrea says. "Because of the large amount of rain in Europe, we expect the supply of winter onions to remain limited and possibly that will lead to a longer selling season of the import onions, but we will have to see that on a weekly basis."
Van der Lans International sells the import onions mainly to German and French supermarkets. "What we are dealing with is that last week almost all German supermarkets ran promotions with German and Dutch onions. The week after such a promotion, sales are always a bit slower," says Andrea, who describes the quality of New Zealand onions as excellent. What was new this year was that import duties for New Zealand onions in Europe lapsed from 1 May, following the UK's example. So far, however, this has not led to a boost in exports to Europe. "The storage technology for the European onions is only getting better, and thus our import season is getting smaller. At the same time, there will always be a gap in the market, with supermarkets needing good, fresh onions."
For more information:
Andrea Candiano
Van der Lans International
Gerrit van der Veenlaan 18
3743 DN Baarn
[email protected]
www.vanderlans.com